When did the CW become the SciFi channel?

September 13, 2013

SyFy has always been an interesting cable channel for me but not just because I am puzzled by how they treat their original series. They are an unusual cable channel in that they specialize in a specific genre of television. The only comparable channels I can think of are Chiller which specializes in horror and Mystery TV which does the same in mystery (surprise!) and suspense. Most channels don’t specialize like this. In fact, it is more common for a channel’s programming to run the gamut of different types and, as a result, include some of their own original genre series. Thus, SyFy not only does not have a monopoly on genre tv, it actually faces competition from other cable channels or the mainstream networks. Some of this competition can be quite stiff as HBO’s Game of Thrones and AMC’s The Walking Dead demonstrate.

And now, the CW network, probably more by accident than design, finds itself moving into the same space as SyFy in that it now has as many original genre drama series as SyFy does. I sort of stumbled across this myself when I was looking up other information. I knew that CW did have a large percentage of genre content in their original series but, I hadn’t appreciated the actual number until now. So, here is the breakdown by channel.

CW:

Arrow
Beauty and the Beast
The Originals
Supernatural
The Tomorrow People
The Vampire Diaries

SyFy:

Being Human
Continuum
Defiance
Haven
Lost Girl
Warehouse 13

I should probably note that SyFy is also currently running (I think) the series Sinbad and Primeval: Lost World but, both of these are one season wonders so, I didn’t count them. Also, I would note that Continuum and Lost Girl are not really SyFy original series as they are the original products of the Showcase channel in Canada. Having said all of this, CW does seem to be focused on a young adult audience so, the high volume of genre content is probably not terribly surprising when one considers this. This is also almost certainly a short term thing as SyFy has a number of new original series in various stages of development at the time of this posting but, I still found the situation interesting.